
Originally Posted by
FitLord
Pocket full of miracles (1961)
Soon after buying an apple from alcoholic down and out street peddler Apple Annie (Bette Davis), Dave the Dude (Glenn Ford) a successful New York City gangster meets his future girlfriend Elizabeth "Queenie" Martin (Hope Lange). As a result he becomes superstititious that buying apples from Annie bring him good luck.
Dave has an important meeting with Steve Darcie "Mr. Bigelow" (Sheldon Leonard), the syndicate boss, to decide whether to allow Dave to control the New York territory in exchange of Steve receiving $50,000. Dave counters with Dave controlling the territory in exchange of Dave receiving payment of $100,000.00 "as a token of good faith".
Annie, it turns out, has a daughter named Louise (Ann-Margret), who was sent to a school in Europe as a baby, but is now a grown woman. Louise believes her mother to be wealthy socialite Mrs. E. Worthington Manville, and she is bringing her aristocratic fianc? Carlos (Peter Mann) and his father, Count Alfonso Romero (Arthur O'Connell), to meet her. Annie has been pretending that she resides in a luxurious hotel (writing her letters on stolen hotel stationery) and has Louise's letters mailed there, then intercepted by an employee who hands them over to her.
Dave's good-hearted girlfriend Elizabeth "Queenie" Martin (Hope Lange) persuades him to help Annie continue her charade. Dave is worried that if he does not help Annie out his luck will end. Queenie takes on the task of transforming the derelict into a dowager. Dave arranges for cultured pool hustler "Judge" Henry G. Blake (Thomas Mitchell) to pose as Annie's husband. He installs her in an out-of-town friend's suite in the hotel, complete with Hudgins (Edward Everett Horton), his friend's butler.
When Dave keeps postponing a meeting with syndicate boss Steve to help Annie, his right-hand man Joy Boy (Peter Falk) becomes increasingly exasperated. Steve Darcie decides to give the New York territory to Dave on Dave's terms. Dave manages to engineer a lavish reception with New York's mayor and governor as guests. Louise and her impressed future husband and father-in-law return to Europe, none the wiser about her mother's real identity.